CareCubed Case Study: Lancashire County Council

In August 2022, Lancashire County Council introduced a new role of Market / Placement Analyst into their Commissioning Service to help strengthen cost monitoring processes (through the use of CareCubed), following issues highlighted in the children's home market by the Competition and Markets Authority in an earlier independent report.

Between September and November 2022, Max Chester (Market / Placement Analyst) conducted an initial study looking at 35 offcontract placements to understand the commissioned price compared to the CareCubed price. This exercise highlighted that on average commissioned fees were higher than CareCubed benchmark ranges. Next, Chester contacted 16 off-contract providers to test engagement. “It was very conversational, introducing my role and the CareCubed tool – that was really the first stage. Due to the success of these early conversations, in December 2022, we decided to implement the tool fully into the commissioning process and this is now ongoing.”

CareCubed is now routinely being used across six areas, including where a home is being offered at £7,000 per week or more and for uplift requests, and there are plans to increasingly use the tool alongside an additional benchmarking capability developed in-house. CareCubed is also utilised to support new providers looking to open provisions in Lancashire with the aim of developing high quality homes and deliver value for money.

In the first 18 months of using CareCubed, over 400 cases were put through the tool, leading to over £500k savings/cost avoidance. “We now have more clarity over grey areas and we are able to set expectations and increase transparency with our providers,” he explained.

While it is not all plain sailing, with some providers who do not want to engage, Chester stressed that doing nothing is not an option: “The way the market it as the moment, to do nothing isn’t a sustainable position, so over time more councils will be asking these questions. We do still have some issues of non-engagement with providers. In this case we notify the management team so we can consider whether we want to do business with those who are not transparent in the future. We want to ensure we are agreeing fair and impartial fees and supporting providers to develop sustainable provisions. CareCubed helps improve our ability to engage with the market for all-round benefits, both for the local authority but also for providers.”

If you would like to hear more about the use of CareCubed in Lancashire County Council, please contact craig.white@iese.org.uk to request access to our recent online webinar.

For more information about CareCubed, please visit: www.carecubed.org